Police Officer Career Paper

1760 Words8 Pages

If I could pick one career in the criminal justice field it would be a Police Office. I chose this career because it’s the type of career where you aren’t doing the same thing every day. Days may be repetitive to other days but, for the most part you walk into work having no idea what is going to happen that day. One day you can be in a high-speed car chase and the next you could be sitting at your desk doing piles of paper work. Police Officers are at the very beginning of every crime case or the formal criminal justice process. They are the ones that need to get a lead or make the initial contact, investigate, make an arrest, bring the person into custody before anything else can happen in the process (Siegel and Worrall 2018). To be a …show more content…

By doing this you can see what you need to do/have done before becoming a police officer. To be a candidate you need to be at least 21 years old and a United States citizen. The next thing you need you is a diver license. This can be a Minnesota license or an out-of-state license. However, the license must have no revocations or suspensions on record from the last two years. You also need to have a clear record, meaning you can’t have criminal convictions on record. Another thing you need is to past the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) test after going to school, along with passing a background check, psychological and medical check. Along with all of that you need to be in good physical condition. If you fit these criteria then you might be able to become a police officer (Stoffel and McPherson …show more content…

You can do this at any police academy. One example of a police academy in Minnesota is the Minneapolis Police Academy (MPA). This police academy program can last from 14 to 16 weeks. You train five days a week, Monday through Friday (Minneapolis Police Academy 2011). In some academies, you can sleep the over every night and go home on the weekends after class on Fridays. This is how it is for the Minneapolis Police Academy. Police Recruits are physically trained and conditioned during the program. To get into the program recruits need to meet certain physical requirements. Once the program is completed the police recruits need to meet another physical standard to pass the program. By getting physically fit, police recruits are getting faster and stronger, which will allow them to run after and restrain people if needed. In the academy, future police officers or police recruits are taught defensive tactics, community orientated policing, firearm, defensive driving and so much more. They are learning everything they need to know to be a well-educated and trained police officer. Some people might be concerned with making money during the weeks of training. However, there is no need to be concerned because police recruits get paid during their training at the academy (Minneapolis Police Academy 2011). Some police academies start paying their police recruits their salary once they start their training in the academy. Some